Mega Becks not guaranteed - Clifford

Celebrity publicist Max Clifford has criticised David Beckham’s big-money move to the US.

The former England captain has agreed to join Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy in a £128m five-year deal, but Clifford, a PR guru with more than 40 years’ worth of experience, believes everything is not necessarily in place for the Beckhams to clean up in Tinseltown.

He said: “I think his PR company are going to have to do a very big job over the next six months. It’s not quite the gold mine that they are selling everywhere.”

For Beckham to succeed in America, Clifford has suggested he will need to explore other career options.

“In six months he’s got to start to make an impact,” he said. “Football just does not have the following over there. George Best went over to improve its profile. So did Pele. And they were much better footballers than he will ever be.”

This view has been echoed by Dr Simon Chadwick, Director of Birkbeck Business School at the University of London.

He said: “The Beckham brand has reached it’s peak in Europe and Asia.

“He is a commercially astute man and he realises that, in addition to the immense number of sporting opportunities over there, there is a huge number of entertainment opportunities for him to capitalise on.”

However, Clifford believes Beckham will need to work on his game both on and off the field if he wishes to conquer the US.

He added: “The European market is all based on David Beckham the superstar. The American market is different in that it isn’t dominated by football.

“He’s gone from being a big fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a huge sea.

“He needs a major TV deal or a major movie deal before he can break America. Ideally, it would be a silent movie.

“He needs elocution lessons and he needs a voice coach. There’s a lot of good-looking guys out there who speak much better than David Beckham.”

The move to La Galaxy could well be the final move of Beckham’s career and, according to Clifford, it may prove a costly one.

He said: “He’s going to a much smaller stage and he’s playing for a club that no-one had heard of until the last couple of days. And he’s gone there from one of the world’s biggest clubs.

“In the last yea, his footballing stature has taken a tumble. He’s got a lot to do to retain those sponsors.

“This move signals David Beckham’s football career coming to an end.”